for such matters can only be known through samʿ (revelatory hearing); beyond that we possess no knowledge at all. Moreover, it is forbidden to speak about Allah without knowledge, as He, exalted be He, says: “Say, my Lord has forbidden only indecencies—both open and secret—sin, wrongful oppression, associating with Allah that for which He has sent down no authority, and saying about Allah what you do not know” (al-Aʿrāf 7:33).
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Another consideration is that when a word admits several possible meanings, assigning it to one of them without definitive proof may attach to it something other than what Allah intended. In so doing, a person attributes to Allah what He did not attribute to Himself and strips from Him an attribute that He, in His holiness, affirmed and approved for Himself. Thus he combines error on both counts, speaks about Allah without knowledge, burdens himself with what is unnecessary, turns away from the path of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, his Companions, and the righteous predecessors, and instead takes the road to Hell along with its fellow travelers among the heretical zanādiqah (misguided freethinkers).
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Besides, there is unanimous agreement that taʾwīl (figurative reinterpretation) is not obligatory; for had it been obligatory, the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions would have neglected a duty and unanimously concurred upon falsehood.
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Likewise, there is no disagreement that whoever recites the Qur’an without knowing its detailed exegesis incurs neither sin nor the omission of any duty. If such knowledge is not obligatory for the very reciter of the Qur’an, it is even less so for one who does not recite it.
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Were such interpretation required of everyone, it would impose what is beyond human capacity and would oblige the masses to speak about Allah without knowledge. And if it were obligatory only for some, what text defines who those people are?
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Moreover, this is a type of knowledge that one is not in pressing need of, for no practical deed hinges upon it, nor does it call to